Some bad news about Garmin, as a company
If you see my blog at all, you are probably aware of the fact that about a year ago I became a massive Garmin fan. I was talking about it so much not just online, but in person, that I started to feel as though they were paying me to say that. The fact of the matter is that I have never had a watch that was so helpful as far as tracking my physical activity was concerned and when I cross-referenced whether or not the stats it was giving me as far as calorie burn and other things are concerned, it was actually quite accurate.
So needless to say I still stand by this equipment, but I recently discovered something that really blemishes them as a company in my mind, and because of this I will be investigating other options as far as my next smart watch is concerned.
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The reason why I was initially unwilling to get involved with a Garmin watch was because they are quite expensive. If you want a Garmin you are looking at $200 for a base model and even more if you are one of those people that have to have the latest and greatest.... I am not one of those people.
Fortune was shining upon me one day, I guess, and I decided to drop the money on a watch after playing with a friend of mine's watch for a bit and really liked the results.
I have been quite happy with my Garmin Vivoactive 4 for quite some time but in the past couple of months the battery started acting all weird in that the watch would completely switch off after the power level got below around 50%. There was also issues of it switching off completely when I would complete an exercise and wouldn't start back up until I connected it to a charger. Only at that point would it sync with my app and let me know the statistics on the exercise that I just did.
So I contacted Garmin to see about a battery replacement, which I foolishly thought would be as simple as getting it to a center that does this sort of thing and then paying something like $20 for a battery. Wow was I ever wrong.
The Vivoactive 4 was released in 2019, which is a mere 6 years ago. I didn't but it that long ago, that was just when it was first sent out to market.
I have a couple of traditional watches that I bought as long as 35 years ago, I can get the batteries changed in those until the end of time.
This planned obsolescence is something that really annoys me, because I don't need the upgraded features that the Vivoactive 5 has, I also am not interested in spending 2 to 3 hundred dollars on a watch every couple of years, I'm not an Apple customer for a reason after all.
I noticed that they never made the claim that battery replacement wasn't possible, they just use lawyer wording to say that they wont do it. In a later email they informed me that they do sell refurbished Vivoactive 4 models, which kind of implies that they have the ability to change the battery, they just wont do it because they want to force you to buy a new product.
This sort of thing should be illegal, and I am now in the process of looking for a different company for my next purchase. I will not reward a company with my money for these sorts of business practices.
Had I known this going in, I wouldn't have purchased it in the first place. I am definitely not the only one, as the brand has a rating of 2.5/5 on pissedconsumer.com
There apparently is a law that is being introduces in the EU called the "Right to Repair" that will force companies to repair their products - to me it is crazy that we need a law for things like this.
If anyone out there has a reccommendation for a different company with a similar product, I would really like to know about it. Garmin has lost me as a customer until the end of time.
Interesting to see what you find. I would guess a lot of other watch brands would be doing the same thing and not be able to replace the part. I did see on Kickstarter though the following watch:
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/unawatch/meet-una-the-modular-gps-sports-watch
It looks really cool but have been burnt by Kickstarter products before so will be watching from the side lines.
i will now be watching this as well. Thanks for the link.
Not surprised at all unfortunately. I don't know about their repair policy, but in terms of features, everybody I know who ever tried a Coros watch never went back to anything else. I tested a few, they're pretty cool indeed. They're usually quite expensive too though. Myself, I've been in the Samsung ecosystem for so long now that I will probably not change, especially with their excellent trade-in offers for upgrade. But if you don't need LTE, it's probably not the best fitness choice (leaving my phone at home or in the car during runs or bike rides is a given, and in the past I still needed to be reachable, hence the LTE need)
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I was talking to a friend the other day that had a watch that was significantly cheaper than a Garmin and this was because it didn't have features that make your watch double as your phone with notifications and abilities to access email etc. I can't even use these features because my eyesight isn't good enough. I only need it as a watch (to tell time) and to track my runs and other physical activities. I actually find the notifications from various messengers to be quite annoying. Do you have any experience with these sorts of watches?
Sorry for the delayed response, I think you're already looking at fitness bands anyways. I really have no experience with these. At least not since my very old Garmin 'watch' before smartwatches actually existed. It was a humongous piece of hardware, and its only functions were to record distance and heartbeat (via a chest strap). But like I said, on top of the normal tracking features, one of my main criteria when I made the jump for a smartwatch was the ability to make actual phone calls without having my phone with me. At the time and in the US, the only LTE version for that was basically the Samsung watch. I could easily live without that now, but it's just easier to stay in the same ecosystem.
Good luck in your search!
Thanks. I don't really need the features of the smart watches but what I am discovering is that the fitness bands that are not smartwatches tend to not have GPS and for me, that is absolutely essential .
Almost all electronic devices with lithium batteries these days use custom designs that aren't meant to be user replaceable. On some devices, you can still replace the battery or get it replaced but it's not convenient.
However, I would be surprised if you couldn't find a third party that would replace the battery.
yeah, i am looking into that. Apparently they void the warranty when they do that but I don't have a warranty that is valid anymore anyway, so I'll try to go this route.
It seems to be a fact of life that modern devices have a life of just a few years. I just heard from Google that my Nest thermostat will not be supported after this year. That has been about 10 years. Google can be bad at this generally as they have shut down loads of services and I think they gave up on various hardware.
For your watch this seems like a hardware issue rather than software support, so it ought to be possible to get a new battery. My Garmin still works fine, but I will consider the options as and when it needs replacing.
This is one reason that I do not buy expensive phones as those have a fairly short life. You have to think about the yearly cost.
!BEER
all good points. I didn't go high end with this $220 purchase but still, for a watch that I only really use for one thing (tracking runs) this isn't an annual expense that I am willing to endure especially since I bring my phone with me on these runs anyway for music and it can track everything that I am doing as well, aside from the heart rate which I will admit is very important.
Head over to a shop and get the battery replaced; it shouldn't be a problem. Disregard the corporate jargon. And if it's a hardware issue, find a nerd to fix it. I got my Suunto battery replaced several times despite their warnings and claims. Everything is possible. I use a Garmin Forerunner 55 for running and a Suunto for diving. When I don't exercise, both watches get turned off, enjoying shelf-life 😊
ok thanks. you are the second person to say this so there must be something to it. I too had a Suunto go bananas on me many years ago. It was called a "Gecko" and it was one of their first affordable dive computers. One day it just decided that I needed really long safety stops and was beeping like mad constantly to warm me that I was ascending too quickly. The problem here was that I was on the surface and hadn't even gotten in the water yet.
This is so wrong on all levels and I would feel the same way as in an around about way they are saying buy the new model and forget what you already have.
It is a dirty tactic for sure and reminds me of when how when I was young your family would buy one television that sat in the living room and you needed a forklift to move it to the other side of the room, let alone another house. That think will outlive all of us. These days, electronics are never meant to last more than a few years.
Very true and why I rent appliances these days as for some reason after 24 months they stop working by design. I am sure the chips inside are only meant to last so many months. I have a fridge that dates back to 1989 when I bought it new from a scratch and dent shop ad t still works like new without even a service. I must have bought at least 10 other fridges over that time period. Quality is definitely not the same today.
was the fridge in question really expensive?
No cheapest brand on the market and I refuse to buy that brand anymore as they literally last 2 years and 1 month falling outside their 2 year warranty period.
i meant the scratch and dent fridge but I'm with you on your sentiment about writing off companies forever that screw people over.
Here is another thing I have noticed. Every single Samsung phone I have ever purchased, after about a month or so after the warranty is expired the battery expands or partially explodes, making it strange and bulky and of course with very limited battery life. Of course, the replacement of said battery is normally about as expensive as getting a new phone and you can't tell me this is a coincidence since it has happened 3 times. My other phones, including a rather cheap Huawei and a Xiaomi, are fine years after the warranty ran out.